Activities Allowed or Unallowed & Allowable Costs/Cost Principles College of the Marshall Islands acknowledges the finding and agrees that certain payroll expenditures were not adequately supported by employment or overload contracts, and some salaries and related benefits charged were not clearly a...
Activities Allowed or Unallowed & Allowable Costs/Cost Principles College of the Marshall Islands acknowledges the finding and agrees that certain payroll expenditures were not adequately supported by employment or overload contracts, and some salaries and related benefits charged were not clearly aligned with the purpose of the related subgrants. These gaps occurred because of inadequate internal controls and the limitations of the previous manual filing system, which made it difficult to locate and verify supporting documents during the audit fieldwork. To address this, the College has upgraded and institutionalized a cloud-based filing system to ensure complete, accessible, and properly organized documentation for all grant-funded positions and expenditures. Internal controls have been strengthened to require signed employment and overload contracts, proper funding source verification, and supervisory review before any grant- related payroll costs are charged. With the upgraded systems and the support of newly hired skilled staff, the College is now better equipped to maintain compliance and oversight. Staff have been trained and will continue to be trained twice a year on federal allowability and cost principles to prevent recurrence of similar issues in future audits.